Far-right activists banned from entering Britain

Terrorist group founder now running online neo-Nazi T-shirt business

German state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD [Social Democrat]) has to find a new Minister of the Interior: Lorenz Caffier resigns.
The CDU ([conservative] Christian Democratic Union) politician is thus drawing the consequences of the purchase of a weapon from a dealer suspected of belonging to the right-wing extremist group "Nordkreuz" (Northern Cross, a right-wing terrorism group).

Germany's Federal Interior Minister has banned the far-right group "Sturmbrigade 44". The announcement came after a series of police raids last year against group members.

The declared goal of the group, also known as "Wolfsbrigade 44", to be achieved by force, was said to be the "revival of a free fatherland" according to "German moral law". They are the armed subgroup of the larger Wolfsbrigade organisation.

Germany: Muslim Migrant Hailed as ‘Model Refugee’ Murders Handicapped Man

In a similar vein, this Karam A. was hailed as a “model refugee” for his success in assimilating into German society. But it seems as if he still carried within him some of the attitudes and assumptions created by a culture of violence that mandates the execution of homosexuals.

Yet no one could have predicted that this would happen, as there is, here again, no reliable way to distinguish between peaceful Muslims and violent ones. Instead of heaping abuse upon those who point this out, genuinely peaceful Muslims should be working hard to establish such a distinction, in Germany and elsewhere, because of course no one would dream of actually doing something so radical as seriously vetting the migrants.

Like the military, the police have been aggressively courted by the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known by its German initials, AfD, since its founding in 2013. Four of the AfD’s 88 lawmakers in the federal Parliament are former police officers — nearly 5 percent compared with less than 2 percent in all other parties.

Penetrating state institutions, especially those with guns, has been part of the party’s strategy from the start. Especially in eastern states, a more extremist AfD has already made deep inroads into the police force.

Björn Höcke, a history teacher turned firebrand politician who runs the AfD in the eastern state of Thuringia, has repeatedly appealed to police officers and intelligence agents to resist the orders of the government, which he calls “the real enemies of democracy and freedom.”

This report in the NYT sums up the influence of the neo-Nazis on the police in Germany quite well

The NYT does nothing well but lie.

coldjoint wrote:

The NYT does nothing well but lie.

All the report or just some phrases?
And since the NYT is just summarising - are the known facts (in German) a lie as well?

Maybe due to your good contacts in the neo-Nazi scene you can provide better sources than the testimonies of the accused and the seized evidence?

Saxony-Anhalt's Higher Regional Court today convicted a right-wing extremist of murder and attempted murder and sentenced him to life in prison (and additional preventive detention, if released earlier) for his attack on a synagogue last year on Yom Kippur, Judaism’s holiest day. He killed two people after he failed to gain entry to the building.

This neo-Nazi apologised to the court for killing the woman, saying "I didn’t want to kill whites". But otherwise, the attacker showed no remorse, but kept to his hate-filled anti-Semitic and racist world view.

The president of Germany’s Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, said the verdict marked "an important day for Germany".

British far-right activist’s team also approached Republican senator Ted Cruz’s office about securing a visa

The anti-immigration activist Tommy Robinson asked wealthy American backers to help him claim asylum in the US, the Guardian has learned, while his team approached the Republican senator Ted Cruz’s office about securing a visa.

Court documents released in the US show the English Defence League founder discussed moving his family to Texas in 2019, where he would earn money by speaking at venues “including evangelical churches”.

Such was the influence of Robinson’s supporters that they asked advisers to Cruz, the Republican former presidential candidate, for legal advice on securing an extended visa for “someone who needs protection”.

Terry Giles, a prominent American businessman and friend of Cruz, told the Guardian he asked the senator’s office for assistance but did not disclose that the visa was for Robinson.

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, remains one of the UK’s highest-profile rightwing campaigners despite being banned from mainstream social media and beset by legal problems. The Luton-born activist has described people who fled the Syrian war as “fake refugees” who should be “sent back”.

Documents released by a US district court in Pennsylvania shed light on how Robinson’s influence extends to high levels in the US, where conservative groups have previously funded his activities in Britain.

The 38-year-old has received hundreds of thousands of pounds in donations from wealthy international backers as well as ordinary supporters. He recently claimed to be bankrupt at the high court in London, where he is due to defend himself in a libel trial later this month.

A record of a meeting between Robinson and his most influential supporters at the Four Seasons hotel in London in early 2019 describes Giles, 72, as “actively working with Senator Cruz to advance Tommy’s visa”.

The Houston-based businessman, who previously ran the presidential campaign for Republican Ben Carson in 2015, was “mainly concerned with bringing Tommy and his family to Houston, by getting a visa; getting them into a new house/school/life; and getting him on to the speaking circuit, including evangelical churches,” according to the memo.

Giles confirmed the account of the meeting, which was also attended by Robinson, his solicitors, a Ukip adviser, the rightwing Canadian pundit Ezra Levant and Lisa Barbounis, an executive for the Middle East Forum, a conservative US thinktank that donated tens of thousands of pounds towards Robinson’s legal fees and rallies.

He said Robinson asked him to explore the potential to move his family to the US due to “serious threats to his family”. He added: “This was the way [Robinson] described it: if things get worse and my family is in danger, what can I do to help them? Is there anything in the United States that could assist in that regard?

“We were just looking into the possibilities so that I could advise them of all of the different things that they could be looking at, including applying for asylum.”

Robinson, who publicly appealed to Donald Trump to grant him political asylum, lost interest in moving to the US “once he realised that he couldn’t go back to the UK if he declared asylum”, according to the files.

Barbounis said in her memo that Robinson’s contempt of court case “impedes the visa process” and added: “We all agreed that to get the outstanding charges from hanging over Tommy’s head and to advance our collective plans for him in the US he should try to settle [the case]. Tommy seemed reluctant but said he would think it over.”

The documents show the Middle East Forum was central to Robinson’s efforts to obtain a visa. Barbounis told her boss, Daniel Pipes, in January 2019 that “Cruz’s guy called Tommy yesterday and said they were discussing it next week”. Cruz’s office said it had no records of helping Robinson secure a visa.

Pipes replied that “we need a patron in the USG [US government]” and suggested enlisting Paul Gosar, a Republican congressman. Barbounis replied that Gosar was “willing but didn’t have enough recognition with the embassy” and that she had contacted Sebastian Gorka, previously an adviser to the then president, Donald Trump, who had “said he would pass it along. Nothing materialised.”

Gorka did not dispute being approached about a visa for Robinson. He said it was “an amusing story” for a “gutter rag like the Commie Guardian”.

Giles and Barbounis appear to have been the main advocates for moving Robinson to the US, according to the documents.

Pipes, the director of the Middle East Forum, told the Guardian he opposed Robinson moving to the US and did not want to facilitate it but that he had previously wanted the activist to visit to discuss free speech issues. He added: “In retrospect, MEF regrets funding the events supporting Mr Robinson. Accordingly, we have cut all relations with him.”

The files were released by the court as part of a dispute between the Middle East Forum and several former employees regarding sexual harassment allegations, which it denies.